


By the Numbers

by Ruuger



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Episode: s08e17 Empedocles, Gen, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-09-22
Updated: 2005-09-22
Packaged: 2017-10-02 05:43:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ruuger/pseuds/Ruuger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"She counts things when she's nervous."</p><p>Spoilers for "Empedocles", but the story makes more sense if you've also seen "Improbable".</p>
            </blockquote>





	By the Numbers

She counts things when she's nervous; tiles on the ceiling of the dentist's office, dots on her supervisor's tie. When she meets new people she turns their names and birth dates into numbers and pretends that she can read the soul from the sums. Part of her knows it's only a silly children's game, but another part still wants to believe that numbers can tell the future.

The first thought in her mind when she arrives at the scene is how the morning is far too beautiful for death.

She doesn't want to get out of her car, doesn't want to know if the dead boy is really the boy they had been looking for. What she wants is to simply to drive away and pretend that they haven't failed, that the boy is still alive somewhere.

So she remains in her car, watching a cop interview the two joggers with their three dogs who found the body under the four great elms, and she counts five large crows and six smaller birds perched in the branches of the trees before the leader of the forensics team notices her and gestures her to join them.

She steps out of the car and into the mist, immediately feeling the darkness surround her even in the bright morning light. In any of the cases she has worked she has never felt anything like it, an evil so strong that it seems to saturate the mist, the fields, the cops, joggers and their dogs, everything and anything, and for a second she feels like she will never be able to see the sun again.

She takes a deep breath and starts towards the tangles of yellow police tape under the elm trees, counting her steps in an attempt to calm her mind. She reaches 665 and stops, the body only a few feet in front of her, the darkness drowning all her senses. "Never tempt the devil", she remembers her grandmother telling her and so she just stands there, staring at the broken little boy in the grass until one of the cops asks her if she wants to take a closer look.

She takes the last step and watches the boy turn into ashes.


End file.
